It is too late to talk about “autonomous zones,” the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has said
FILE PHOTO: Residents of the Borodyanka region of Kiev, Ukraine, April 8, 2022. © Metin Aktas / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has dismissed the idea of creating “autonomous regions” in Ukraine, floated by Trump ally Rick Grenell, as too little, too late.
Grenell was one of the few trusted operatives in President Donald Trump’s administration, serving first as ambassador to Germany and then as acting director of National Intelligence.
“Autonomous regions can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but you got to work through those details,” Grenell said on Monday during a Bloomberg News roundtable on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He also said Ukraine should not become a member of NATO any time soon.
“Where were you, Rick, when the Minsk agreements dedicated to exactly this were on the table of the international community, and Russia did its best in support of them and called for finding a form of federalization of Ukraine to preserve its integrity?” Zakharova said on Telegram, reacting to Grenell’s proposal.
“You were the US ambassador in Berlin at the time and called on the Germans to abandon the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, grossly interfering in the internal affairs of Russia and Germany. Now the Germans are without gas, and the Ukrainians are without a country and a stable future,” she added.
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Grenell would likely have a senior role in a second Trump administration, and Bloomberg interpreted his comments as a possible Republican proposal to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, he repeatedly claimed he had not discussed the matter with Trump and did not speak on his behalf.
Multiple regions in Ukraine rose up in response to the US-backed coup in Kiev in early 2014. While neo-Nazi militias crushed uprisings in Kharkov and Odessa, Donetsk and Lugansk declared themselves people’s republics and sought to join Russia. The two Minsk agreements – in August 2014 and February 2015 – envisioned autonomy for the two Donbass republics within Ukraine. Russia had endorsed the agreements, which were brokered by Germany and France.
In late 2022, however, former German and French leaders claimed that the Minsk agreements had been a ploy to buy time for the West to arm Ukraine. By then, Russia had accepted the vote by the Donbass republics to join the federation, alongside the former Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye. Moscow has since said their status is non-negotiable.
The current US government has endorsed Vladimir Zelensky’s “peace platform,” which envisions Russia giving up all territory claimed by Ukraine, submitting to a war crimes tribunal, and paying reparations, among other things. Moscow has dismissed Zelensky’s plan as unserious and regards him as illegitimate, since his presidential term expired in May.